Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-03-26

sunday he came and sat on the piazza in desultorv
conversation with the elders while Ariadne also
grandmothers previous behest, though she would
nave greatly preferred a lonely stroll on the
lake snoie While the sun was setting or the moon
was Using. she never seemed to comprehend
what he wanted, even when the old people left
them alone and he made sundry attempts to as
sumo Ine regulation "courtin'" attitude. He al
ways went away chilled at heart-poor man, He
Could hardly get On with her, even in a serious
commonplace conversation. Not that she found no
ested In them ALL but In different way-seeing in
them what he did not and could never see. Poor
AT1adne's heart was kind, but She knew not how to
adapt herself to him, and so went on saying that
which filled him with wonder and struck him
duIno What allied her!-what allied her! He was
diseouraEed early but stu he came on
Welker, sadly IAN Nathan mout 1es' es well quit
an be done with 1t. She wer born so-po' creetur'.
she can't hep ii. She want born for lOv1n' and
marryin, Sol. Nathan 'ud better be barkin' up
another stump" And Solomon Walker bowed his
mead, as II weight hung round his neck, and
looked at his daughter In dumb, deep regret.
The grandmother was right in saying Nathan
CowSiey had better go elsewhere to seek q WIFE,
but they were wrong in thinking Ariadne was not
born for love. The time came when her heart
was only too open to the love Of one man. He was
a stranger In that country and she only saw him
One morning old Mrs. Walker found live lizard
| in the water she drew from the well. This was a
sure forerunner OF Ill luck and She was no little
now? For some days II pleased her to deny her
self the well water-doubtless with the intent OF
Shaving on the threatened misfortune II possible
drinking instead the slightly inferior liquid from
the spring "dOwn slider the big road" from which
place Arfadne fetched it daily. 1t was here The
stranger was encountered. Late one afternoon
the girl sailed forth bare-headed, the water pail
under her arm, and the dead schoolmasters copy
reading few lines now and then. On the way
she plucked some parsley, made f1llet OF II and
crowned ed herself smiling as always at the thought
without any OF the desperate striving to become
victor In the Greek games. Soshe approached the
spring, and behed diSmOunted horseman water
ing his animal. few steps away she paused ere
lie had seen her, and gazed at him in wonder. 1t
was evident that he did not belong to that part OF
the country; from his dress, his manner and all,
he appeared to be man Of the world. But it was
his extraordinary physical beauty which affected
her. Transport them back three thousand years,
and Theseus and Ariadne had met.
He turned and saw her, and then she moved for
ward with perfect self-possession to dip her pail
lie took of his hat TO her-whtch salute she &C.
knowledged with great dignity and sweetness
and leaning On his horses neck, he looked on with
bare-headed, beautiful girl at the roadside was no
slight wonder in itself, but TO meet her with q
water pail under her arm, a book in her hands and
a wreath or parsley on her head-he had encoun-
tered nothing like 1t. She seemed to wish to hear
him speak-to expect him to talk, and, after utter
ing common place or Two, ne made bold TO ask ASK
her what II was she read. For reply she handed
him the book.
Ohl-the "Iliad." He was greatly surprised.
He turned the leaves almost reyerenty telling her
he thought 1t fine thing 10 have read that book,
and 10 have read 1t with true appreciation OF
what was there. "a poem beside which all others
are weak, he added
Aradne heard him with beaming pleasure; no
one had ever spoken TO her of that grand book be-
lore. He went on, with Intent TO draw her out.
and discover what she thought OF this book she
read, and was more and more aStonshed at her
reJolnderS-much ut her ideas, which struck him
as peculiar and deep, but more at her solemn,
measured tones and the curious, hal -rhy thmic
quality OF her strangeiy-formed sentences. What
could IL mean?
I,.1 Il ed no milo harp who
she lived; and she answered that they called her
carrie. but her Maine was Ariadne; her fat her was
SOlOmdn Walker, and they lived up there on the
ridge. Then he gave her the book. smiled upon
her at parting and mounted his horse and rode
away, as IL he had but little time to spare. But
he had carefully noted what she said, and as he
rode away he looked about him well, If 10 keep
ia mind the names and the neighborhoOd until a
future day.
Ariadne liked all OF him but the clothes he wore
She would have preferred him dressed in the garb
OF Achilles. There was picture OF Achilles in her
OOok- She wondered why he did rot dress like the
hero OF the Iiad-and never thought to wonder in
the same way about her father and Nathan cow
siey But 1t mattered little anyhow, for she Ilnme-
dlaLeiy dressed him up like Achilles in her imagi-
nation and crowned him with all her love-poOr
Ariadne! And the next day she went down to the
spring with the eager expectation OF seeing him
again. Why should he not be there that day and
the next day, and the next, and smile upon her
and talk and then ride away as on yesterday?
knew Of them not?
What Were time and space to her and to him.
Neither had stood in the way OF the Olympian gods
or the heroes, OF whom her beloved HerOdOtus
wrote with such rervent, unquest1Oning faith
How could 1t be otherwise with him? He might be
an neromnay, even a god; he weuid appear before
her when he would. So Ariadne dreamed On-and
reached the spring and found him not. She waited
and he came not-waited long and drearily, then
lell on the ground and wept.
Day after day she came and watched for him In
vain. Now she knew for the first time the pangs
OF SnaWlng disappointment, and it slowly came
home 10 her with feeling OF passionate grief that
that which one longs Tor and loves may not be had
from the mere longing and loving. She grew to
hate the spring and would go there no more
fostering the hope that he might come another
way. She lay in the grassy pillows on the Giants
Head and hoped and dreamed that he would come
TO her In time across the water.
Some months were gone, and craving for eX-
preston began to grow upon Ariadne. And now
rapture, body and soul, although her heart was
sad. She lay on the Giants Head by day or sat
under the oaks in the yard by night, and spoke
her grief, her thoughts her hopes, in measured,
flowing accents. IL was long ere She bethoughp
herself OF writing any OF this down; but one day
1t came upon her in flood OF rapture that she
might be ii poet, as SapphO had been among the
Greeks and she was lifted high with enthusiastic
hopes There would be no lack OF Inspiration; her
emotions. She would write OF her Achilles Mt The
spring; his god-like beauty, his smile his words
ms dlSappearance-Snatched away by some mag
Egndlit power-and her bitter, unav..iling grief:
Oh her hopes OF his return, the dawn of that grand
day, their love, their life, their heaven then
were there not the innumerable things which th'.
birds and beasts, the woods and waters the
changing skies and whispering winds, said TO her
In turn?
But it did not prove so easy, even with her in
Haru, enduring power, her inatchleSS fancy and
her freedom from disGueting influences. Tn
happy pitfalls yawn before the poet born who ia
not also poet made. Her first efforts SO panied
anu maddened her with sense OF her own impO-
tehce. mat she tore the sheets to ShredS while
siieuuhg bitter tears. She would try no more: tt
gave her tSO much pain and only marred her poem
her grand enduring poem, which lived within and
moved her In every nerve and fiber, although she
I farrh in
anu Dy the pen came into favor again. and at last
thefe was a time when she would allow some
Portions OF her work 10 stand, though weeping
Always with profound despair when she made
comparisons Win her pOetS-anOn smiling sadly
over II All, h'lmDed In the realization that her
WORK must raii so far below her ain.
The girl grew pale and thin, and they marked II
WIN aiariii xliit's that writin'," declared Old
MrS. walker. ''She'S alters at tt-day an NIGHT
Scp u neh Sne taxes notion to traipse rOun' In
the WOODS little. She don't sleep none hardly
noho", an ei hlt's u moonshiny night she les
gone, she sets thar in her winder or Greens about
on the ply aza nose all night. Hit amt human
SOL, sneS uuunt She never will he same nc
other folks Her brains Is added
one night the woods took IRE and Solomon
walker fastened down TO the vicinity Fearful lest
ms isntlng WOULD suffer. Ariadne followed, at
tracteu oy the glorious blaze which here and there
ran up on the oozlng turpentine to the tops OF
some OF the highest pines. Instructng her 10 call
Mm IL The nre came too near Solomon Walker
stationed MS daughter behind him and followed
tne Hne OF Fencing larther on. Happily what wind
.nefe " as uu not oiow that way-the real danger
was some distance on--for Ariadne soon forgot The
renee and lost herself In watching the dusky curl
Ing Shapes among the smoke W reat ned nine free
tops, ana the glowing flames beneath.